Cultural models of GE agriculture in the United States (Georgia) and New Zealand (Canterbury)

Abstract

The goal of this research was to assess why genetic engineering (GE) agricultural technology was embraced in some industrialized nations (United States) while it evokes extreme concern and aversion in others (New Zealand). GE technology is highly controversial — while proponents promote its potential to significantly increase global food production, improve food nutritional quality and decrease agrochemical use, opponents question its safety and morality. They object to its unnaturalness, using terms such as "Franken food", and warn of health and environmental dangers such as gene transfers to wild species, decreased genetic diversity, and pest resistance to agri-chemicals. Both the United States (US) and New Zealand (NZ) are economically dependent on their large agricultural sectors, yet their respective governments and general publics have responded with opposing positions to GE food and crops. Empirically grounded cognitive approaches were used to look directly at the cognitive cultural models afforded GE technology, and how these models relate to very different national responses. It was postulated that differences in reaction to GE food technology could be correlated to differences in the mental constructs surrounding health and the environment held by members of the two societies (given the technology’s potential positive and negative consequences in these two areas). The following two questions guided the research: 1. How do the cultural models invoked by GE technology vary among stakeholder groups (consumers, GE farmers, organic farmers), inter- and intra-culturally, in the United States and New Zealand? 2. How do the cultural models invoked by GE technology vary with the cultural meanings given to health and the environment? Cultural modeling can play a pivotal role in understanding technological acceptance — an increasingly important endeavor, given the mass production and global distribution of new technologies. Previous research on GE technology has often taken respondents out of social context by not emphasizing the culturally mediated nature of GE acceptance. Cognitive cultural modeling is an effective means of integrating the role of social context and culture into our understanding of technological acceptance. In this research, data analyses suggest that there are marked differences intra-culturally in the US and NZ with respect to how stakeholder groups cognitively model health and the environment and in turn, how these groups cognitively model GE technology. Interculturally, respondent environment models varied widely and cognitive modeling suggests that stakeholder perceptions of the environment were an important component in determining their stance on GE food and agricultural technology. New Zealand’s clean green national identity was often a key feature influencing respondent stances on GE technology.